The Final Morph
by Renae Shnucumbs
Summary: With the recent animorph pairings, everyone is happy. Harry and Draco are relaxing, Ron and Hermione are snogging, and basically everyone is having the time of their life. But suddenly- things aren't so perfect any more. With the rebirth of a Dark lord, as well as the trials Harry and the gang are forced through- when do our young heros truly have time to be themselves? Preslash AU


**The Final Morph**

_**Prologue**_

Harry gave his best friends encouraging nods. "Alright guys- we're the last three left. Whatever you do, don't lose your cool. Keep calm and focused. Those kids out there won't know what hit them."

Pansy nodded. "Especially you Ron, no fooling around – first impressions are the main ones. Alright? Shit – I can't believe we're really doing this!" she covered her mouth with her hand to prevent an excited squeal before taking a deep breath.

"Yeah yeah, we'll be fine" Ron said, rolling his eyes. "You two are being too dramatic. Drama queens," he snorted, sitting back casually in the arm chair he was occupying. "Be yourselves. No one's gonna want a show off."

"Guys, I need to go now! I'll see you afterwards," Pansy said, her eyes wide as she approached the shimmering veil. Just before leaving, she turned to give them one last exasperated glance. "You'll both be fine," she said rolling her eyes before stepping through the portal.

Ron groaned. "I've seen it happen eight times so far and it still freaks me out when they do that. Gah! Stupid stomach knots!" Harry laughed, clapping Ron on the back.

"You should have eaten something when you had the chance. What are you going out there as?" he inquired. Ron shot him a grin.

"Gryffindor."

"Ahhh"

"You?"

"Emerald"

"What?" Ron turned to his best mate with wide eyes before cracking up. "I can't wait to see the poor bugger who gets you!" he laughed. Harry smirked before frowning when the red head suddenly froze up. Ron gave him a brittle smile, nodding to his wrist where a small bracelet was warming up.

"Good luck" Harry murmured, watching as the red head shifted into a large red coated lion. The animal cocked his head at him before moving forward to butt its head against his thigh. Harry smiled and scratched its shaggy head before it firmly turned and walked through the veil.

Leaning back against the seat, Harry knocked his head against the wall. Great. He was last. Oh god, he felt as though he was gonna puke.

_I can't wait to get this done with._

* * *

Draco cricked his neck as his rival – Hermione Granger- walked up towards the elevated platform before jumping on gracefully. Saying her oath of honesty and goodness she bent down into a graceful bow, her knees folding beneath her demurely as she awaited the arrival of her animorph.

The silver silk like portal directly in front of her shimmered and the whole hall watched with bated breath as first a large red paw came out followed by another until the gigantic body of a lion walked out, stalking predatorily towards the kneeling woman. Draco himself felt his breath speed up, watching with slightly narrowed eyes as the beast of prey circled the Ravenclaw goody two shoes before letting out a threatening growl. Granger held herself perfectly still while a few of the watching audience gasped, one even going as far as to let out a sob. Draco looked swiftly to the side where a wide eyed couple were watching, the woman gripping her husband's wrist in terror. With a snort, Draco realized that they were the Granger's parents and rolled his eyes before turning back to the stage.

There was a reason that muggles weren't allowed to watch ceremonies as private as this but as always, the muggle loving fool Dumbledore had to go and invite them, along with every other muggleborns' parents.

The lion stepped back three steps in what Draco recognised as the customary pureblood greeting, falling onto his hunches in a way to sway the opponent into thinking they were safe. Draco watched to see if Granger had seen through the ruse and lifted an eyebrow when he saw the faintly relaxed posture of the woman before with a thunderous roar, the lion leapt at her. A loud shock wave went through the crowd right before the lion was bounced off the invisible _protego_ that the witch had managed to create without moving from her kneeled position.

Slowly standing up from her position, Granger flicked her wand throwing the lion back. Impressed despite himself, Draco joined in on the applause when the lion morphed mid leap into a lanky red haired man who back flipped off the wards surrounding the stage before shooting towards Granger, displaying his gleaming steel claws. In response, Granger gave a violent twirl that whipped up a small storm around her, throwing the red head off track. The red head gave a rueful grin as he brushed himself off before he held out a hand to Granger which was accepted with a coolness that even Draco on his best days struggled to keep. As Granger stepped off the platform, Dumbledore went up.

"Next up is our very own Mr. Malfoy, Second honours student with one of our highest results in history, the only one to have ever succeeded in achieving not only a Charms mastership but a Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts!" Rounds of applause followed Draco as he made his way to the raised platform, jumping on with a smirk to the headmaster. Banishing his nerves he flicked his wand, hearing from the appreciative murmurs going through the crowd that his formal black robes had been successfully transfigured into a pair of grey track pants that were offset with his skin tight white tee-shirt. Rolling his head around, he got into a battle stance in front of the veil as he awaited the arrival of his animorph.

* * *

"Is he challenging his animorph?"

Ron turned to the bushy haired female that was his bonded. "Yeah. There are many ways to greet an animorph partner. You chose the humility, symbolised through the white clothing and your submissive pose but what you really wanted was a partner smart enough to risk seeing through that. Am I right?" he sipped at the glass of punch in his hand, watching the female as she blushed before grinning. "Blondie on the other hand is going to show his partner that he is a worthy warrior, and that he expects an equal in strength and intelligence, symbolised by the casual clothing that shows off his muscles and figure."

"Oh." Ron gave the girl a small smile before abruptly realizing that he didn't even know her name yet.

"Ron Weasley" he introduced, his unoccupied hand held out. The witch placed one of her bangs behind her ear before reaching for it and shaking.

"Hermione Granger"

Ron smiled at her, bringing her hand up to his lips to place a soft gentleman's kiss on it. "Pleasure to meet you" he purred before turning back to the stage where the blond was standing regally and tried to contain a snort. Hermione turned and raised inquisitive eyebrow at him.

"What?"

"Let's just say Malfoy's in for a shock" he murmured.

* * *

Harry sighed, his head tilted up as he counted the cracks in the wall before a whole body shiver went through him, centred on a small bracelet sitting innocently on his wrist. "Dammit Harry! Calm down!" Taking a deep breath, he stood up before facing the veil, feeling his nerves hit him. "Shit! Alright! Breathe. Breathe. Okay. Ron and Pansy are going to be there. Alright. Here goes nothing."

* * *

Draco watched incredulously as one tiny black paw came out of the veil followed by another before the tiny body of a kitten emerged from the portal, turning to cock its head at him. Behind him he heard laughter as the audience took in the new arrival with great amusement. Draco flushed angrily, glaring at the feline who watched him back with an even gaze before running at him with the speed of lightning.

Ducking, he sent an immobilizing curse at the dark blur which missed (_as expected_) and was absorbed by the shield erected around them. His lips tightened at this as Draco decided to keep calm. So what if his animorph was a tiny feline- they had many good qualities. Plus, the kitten could obviously hold its own, as not a single one of the hexes he had thrown (_wide and narrow ranged_) had managed to even scrape the animorph. Relaxing into his role, he threw a cutting spell at the animorph that had now decided to influence wind to get a lift.

"_Meow!"_

The audience watched with a shocked silence as the kitten seemed to collapse in itself, a bright red spreading from a cut in its shoulder. Draco swore. He hadn't meant to hurt his animorph! With that he approached the small animal, his figure tense. Just before he reached the fallen animal, the kitten leapt to its feet and opened its mouth in a wide yawn. Draco, along with the rest of the audience, watched in bemusement at the gaping kitten before realization hit Draco. Cursing, he back flipped just in time to miss the large fireball that singed the tips of his hair.

His "Hey!" was swallowed in the crowd's applause, but he and the kitten had eyes only for each other. As the kitten opened his mouth again, Draco ran at it swerving from side to side to keep the animorph from getting a good target on him. What he hadn't expected was for the injured kitten to be able to track his movement and send a volley of fireballs one after the other, the last one managing to burn his side.

"FUCK!"

Fine, he wasn't going to go easy either.

"_Serpensortia!"_

A long, black snake jumped from the tip of his wand as the audience gave a gasp that echoed. The kitten snarled at the approaching snake confidently. The snake stopped at the injured feline, its fangs glistening brightly. Draco- along with the rest of the crowd- watched to see how the animorph would react.

Would it turn back into his or her human form to cast the counter curse or would it concede defeat.

Surprisingly, it did neither. Giving Draco a dirty, the kitten opened its mouth.

"__" The snake disappeared, but that did nothing for the onlookers.

A parselmouth.

A parselmouth animorph.

He had a _parselmouth animorph_.

The shock he felt resonated in the crowd.

Draco watched passively as the kitten limped towards him, tensing for any aggressive move but it seemed that just like him, his animorph had felt the fight leave after the shock. With one leg bent forward, the kitten gave a bow which Draco gracefully, albeit stiffly, copied. The crowd was silent before one lone soul started clapping, causing the others to join in. Before long, the hall was in uproar around the two newly bonded who were still in their bowed form. The shield around them disappeared as Dumbledore walked on stage, clapping merrily. He held Draco's shoulder as he faced the crowd with a large smile.

"Ah, what a finale! We certainly haven't had a bonding that intense in a while! Now, everyone- I'd like to thank you for attending and mention that in a while we shall be carrying out the formal bonding ceremony after which we will be serving dinner. Until then, mingle!"

Draco nodded at him before turning to the kitten who was licking his paws innocently and felt a smile turn the corner of his lips up. Walking off the stage, he was followed by the tiny feline who ignored the ramp and jumped off the stage. The crowd parted for him and his animorph as he walked over to his family.

"Mother. Father." He gave a smile to both his parents as his mother reached over to hug him while his father gave him a curt nod. "I'd like to introduce my animorph..." he turned to the kitten who grinned at him before morphing back into a human. A very _gorgeous_ male human with thick tousled black hair and two tiny little cat ears. Inwardly Draco licked his lips.

"Harry. Harry Potter" the male said, his voice husky and deep. Looking up in shock, Draco was immediately sucked into the brightest green eyes he'd ever seen. It took a while for the words to set in. But when they did, the result was thunderous.

He was bonded to the _Boy-who-lived._

* * *

**AN: *wipes sweat of brow* Well! That _was_ fun! **

**Can I call this a unique story line? I haven't seen it in the Harry Potter fandom yet, but I'm still fairly new to the fandom (not like the people who have been here since 2006 or 2004... *shivers* I wasn't even alive... no wait, yes I was... Just way to immature for this shit). =D**

**Um, there's preslash in this- however it will have a NC17 twin (_HPDM pairing. YUM_) that can be found on my Live Journal. About updates... I'm hoping to update every friday but no promises. I'm in year eleven so the shit's really cracking down on me. **

**On another note, isn't Ron _hot_! *swoons* he was all purry and murmuring and... *melts***

**Renae Shnucumbs, **

**Over and out**


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